A Roaming Scientist Looks at 40 45

The Huffington Post used to be a great place for center-to-slightly left leaning news coverage.

Over the last five years it has continued to slide as a serious news source. During the holidays, I finally decided it no longer merited a stop during my daily news perusal. I stopped reading on January 1st and haven’t been back since. Here’s why.

1. The annoying click bait titles are annoying.

“You won’t believe what this politician said next.” or “The top nine foods you need to eat RIGHT NOW” simply does not qualify as journalism. Give me an informative title to judge if I want to read your content please.

2. The annoying featured ads inserted directly into news content are annoying.

This is particularly egregious on the mobile app with “Presented by…” some corporate sponsor and formatting to look like any other of their other low-brow click bait articles.

Which brings me to…

3. A vast majority of the worthy content on HuffPost comes from 3rd party sites anyways.

The HuffPost reposts things from the NY Times and other sites anyways. I prefer to get my content from primary sources.

There are a few select people I continue to follow on Twitter but I have pretty much wiped the HuffPost from my slate.

Since I’m not going news free, I’ve replaced it with a renewed subscription to Harper’s, The New York Review, and of course, the New Yorker. For breaking news, Twitter.

I, for one, am seriously sick of the Clinton campaign playing the race card but acting like they aren’t.

Since they can’t get anything to stick to Obama, they’re now attacking his electability. Specious arguments that she’s won the big critical states make absolutely no sense. They must think we’re all idiots.

And because Clinton has won West Virginia, we’re led to believe that Obama can’t win the “white vote?” This isn’t about winning the “white vote.” (Sorry, I have to keep putting it in quotes because it is so ridiculous.) Ever hear of UTAH? Well, Obama won Utah. And I can tell you this: there aren’t a whole helluva lot of African Americans in Utah. African Americans make up 0.8% of the entire Utah population.

Clearly, this is an issue of intelligence, not race. West Virginia is the most poorly educated state in the country. They’re dumb enough to vote for someone completely disconnected from their plight. What’s more, to vote against someone because of the color of their skin? Lovely.

Here I record random thoughts on travel, art, architecture, productivity, migraines, and various (mis)adventures in the Rocky Mountains of the Western United States and around the world.

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